Depression in Schools

Taken From
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/2012/02/depressed-teen.jpg

Now depression among teens, and even children is a growing concern. Now teen years especially are a concern for these symptoms to manifest themselves, because of not only the physiologically changes that are occurring in the body, but the ever increasing stressors that are being placed on the children.
I recently read an article about teen depression that came from the MAYO Clinic. I wanted to know about depression and it's signs in order to better myself as a teacher, I am going to be working with this age group soon and I feel as though knowing how to better cope with it in order to modify teaching would be a good tool to posses. Now depression in teens is a serious sickness that causes the individual to change the way they think, and act. How they interact with others, and even the way in which they handle themselves in school can be severely affected. Now their are many symptoms one must watch out for when trying to understand if it is depression that is being shown, or just a minor emotional outburst. Now loss of interest, fatigue, and irritability are among some of the top signs, along with anxiety and disruptive emotional outburst. These are all symptoms that can be noticed in the classroom, and with the experience I already have coaching, I could tell when someone was having a bad day just from their demeanor in practice. Now some of these symptoms can evolve into life threatening problems, so something must be done about depression before it has this chance. Now the main defense against depression it seems is to medicate the individual. To me this is more like a band aid, and not a cure. Counseling, and therapy are in the mix as well, and I feel as though these are somewhat more helpful when combined with the medication because this actually gives a chance at fixing the problem that is causing the depression. Really though as a teacher you can only recognize these symptoms and then through proper channels refer the child to others that are more qualified. The main point is that you have taken a chance to care and show that child support. Having them know that someone cares about them I think is probably one of the greatest acts that can be done for children with depression. That is because many depression cases are due to loneliness and a lack of self worth. Being there for your students and showing the care is probably one of the greatest things to be done and is the main purpose of writing this article.